Canadians may feel a sense of deja vu as three new byelections are being called, the latest round of polls to be held this year.
Prime Minister Mark Carney announced the votes for the ridings of Beaches-East York in Ontario, Chicoutimi-Le Fjord in Quebec and North Vancouver-Capilano will be held Aug. 31.
The elections come just three months after voters in three Ontario ridings took to the polls that handed the Liberals three more MPs and the government’s first majority since the 2015 election.
All three seats became vacant earlier this summer, with one MP choosing to leave politics, one being named an ambassador to the European Union, and the third being named to the Senate.
Nate Erskine-Smith stepped down from his Beaches-East York earlier this month, two months after losing the Ontario Liberal Party nomination for Scarborough Southwest. He had previously told local media outlet, the Beach Metro Community News, he still planned to resign as MP whether he won the nomination or not. He’s now said he’s considering a run for Toronto city council.
The riding is considered a Liberal stronghold that the party has held since Erskine-Smith ran in 2015, but it was previously held by the NDP following its 2011 Orange Crush.
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North Vancouver-Capilano lost its MP, longtime Liberal MP and cabinet minister Jonathan Wilkinson, when he was named by Carney as Canada’s EU ambassador. He stepped down from Parliament last month.
The Liberals have held the riding since 2015 when Wilkinson defeated Conservative MP Andrew Saxton as the party swept to power under Justin Trudeau.
Quebec’s Chicoutimi-Le Fjord riding has switched hands multiple times over the past two decades between the Bloc Quebecois, NDP, Liberals and, since 2018, the Conservatives.
Richard Martel was named to the Senate by Carney earlier this month, when the prime minister dropped the non-partisan criteria for appointments that had been in place.
The Liberals currently hold 172 seats, the Conservatives hold 139, the Bloc Quebecois have 21, there are five NDP MPs, one Green MP. There is also one independent, Alexandre Boulerice, who was elected under the NDP banner but changed his status as he announced plans to run in the Quebec election later this year.
That leaves one vacancy in the riding of Saint-Hyacinthe-Bagot-Acton in Quebec which became vacant when former Bloc MP Simon-Pierre Savard Tremblay left politics. The earliest a byelection can be called is Aug. 10, with the latest being Dec. 19, according to Elections Canada.
Glad to see democracy working in Canada, unlike the gerrymandered money addled mess in the USA.
Should be in every riding that had an MP cross the floor
@M. Rubenstein. “Instead offer all that to the neighboring Palestinians that are lined up unable to get medical attention because of on going Israeli actions.” Let me fix this for you. “Instead offer all that to the neighboring Palestinians that are lined up unable to get medical attention because of on going HAMAS actions. According to the UN it is Hamas that is stealing the aid for the people. It is Hamas that hides behind women and children under schools and hospitals. It was Hamas that attacked Israel. Israel is defending itself and continues to do so.
@anonymous. The Liberals don’t own the press. A US company with close ties to the republican party owns a 60% share of most of the newspapers in this country. Just outrageous!
North Van back to Conservative!
The usual asholes of the planet commenting
Comments closed on u.s. consulate shooting and israel peddling AI tech to canada?? Not to condone any type of violence, it seems like if your going to treat others with excessive force, the very “polite” Canadians will let you know. Israel want to care for canadians with high tech wrist bans to monitor health?? A quote from that article: “Moed said Israeli companies also want to collaborate with Canada on Israel’s hospital-at-home concept, which involves monitoring patients with acute or chronic needs through wearable devices and video calls”. Instead offer all that to the neighboring Palestinians that are lined up unable to get medical attention because of on going Israeli actions. Bravo to Carney for staying away from the terrorist netanyahoo for his war crimes against humanity charges.
@Ben “This is what it is like to live in a democracy. No gerrymandering, no silencing the press like the US does.” Oh Ben you are SO naive. The Liberals don’t need to silence the press, they OWN the press. Bought and paid for by Trudeau and Carney is gleefully continuing that purchase.
This is Carney trying to redirect the public attention away from the Gordie Howe bridge PR disaster. Nothing to see here folks … OOH look over there and focus on that.
Because he is so democratic, he is holding bi-elections on the last weekend of summer.
Elections Canada needs to be purged of all Liberals.
The funny thing about some conservatives is they will sit on the sidelines and whine and complain while their team plays. Sad really that they put partisanship over country.
I’m glad that Carney is making millions of dollars from his unknown blind trusts while hard working Canadians suffer with high prices and fuel costs thank you Mr Carney
Glad I live in Canada, where the government can’t gerrymander and where we use secure paper ballots. No wonder our country scores well on world democracy indices.
More liberal ridings to feel bad for me and my invader buddies. Excellent.
Allah snackbar
Probably all those ridings will be voted in as Liberal since Carney is doing the most fantastic job in the history of Canadian Prime Ministers. Carney has cunningly avoided dealing with the USA. Has made numerous Brookfield deals with other countries. He has avoided Parliament because he doesn’t want to answer to Poilievre. Made security deals with China that he refuses to tell Canadians what those deals are. And he spends hundreds of thousands of dollars on his private jet meals like Chilean Sea Bass which must have been caught in our St Lawrence River downstream of the Montreal sewage outlet. Oh I could go on and on but I have to sacrifice a goat to my Carney shrine.
Doesn’t this mean the Frigging Liberals no longer have the majority? These fools have to WIN the byelections first to be MPs do they not? The majority failed when Gibbering Guilbeault gave up his seat. But our ever biased media would not report this.
Oh mr carney has truly made Canada a paradise.
would be a great moment in time to have only paper ballots, voter id and ballot counting in a public venue with public access though glass visual. Public trust is nonexistent. Media tries to say “it ain’t so”.
I believe everything I read at Global I’m a gullible fool I know but let’s face it Carney’s Liberals have made Canada so much more affordable in the last year just as they promised !!!
This is what it is like to live in a democracy. No gerrymandering, no silencing the press like the US does. Two reasons why Canada scores higher than the US on world democracy indices.
Well, we know which ridings to burn if they vote Liberal.
I am sure his Chinese handlers will help him fake the election results.
Carney and the Liberals need to go.